Kindler & Briel (Kibri)

Kindler & Briel was entered in Böblingen’s commercial register in 1895 by Wilhelm Kindler senior and Adolf von Briel as a maker of fine toys. Its name Kibri, formed from the founders’ surnames, appeared in 1928. The early catalogue covered a broad range, including outdoor toys, dolls’ kitchens and accessories, shop fittings and railway products. A 1904 sample book records the breadth of its offering. In the years before the First World War, the company expanded its workforce and sold products abroad; railway accessories became an increasingly important specialism.

After the Second World War, wood and metal products were joined by plastics, requiring new machinery and tooling. Kibri maintained a factory in Schopfloch from 1963, where it made wooden toys and later housed plastics processing and toolmaking. A fire at the Böblingen factory in 1973 destroyed the historical sample collection, and production was subsequently consolidated in Schopfloch. Kibri’s model range included railway buildings and structures, landscape and industrial buildings, and commercial vehicles, often based on existing prototypes and offered in several model railway scales. Viessmann acquired the Kibri brand in 2010; the brand remains part of its model railway range.